"Before this reaches you, you will have learned that peace has crowned the efforts of the Berlin conference, and the Russian-Turks war is ended. Russia acquires Batoum and considerable adjoining territory of importance to her, as it opens the way for her to make further advance into eastern Persia and Egypt. To offset this, England, to the surprise of all Europe, has secured by purchase and secret treaty, at the very time of the convening of the peace congress, the island of Cypress, said to be the key to the highway leading into the rich agricultural districts of the Nile; and also the overland road to her extensive East India Empire. "I am not a political man, but in my opinion, England has got the lion's share. Her gold, and Disraeli's diplomacy have given her the victory. Russia submits with a deep low growl! Austria gets a nice bone, sweeter than she expected; while France, snubbed and defied, is loud in her expressions of discontent and indignation. Earl Beaconsfield has covered himself with present glory, while Gladstone is no longer glad--the stone of disappointment lying heavy on his heart. When I came to England, the masses spoke of him as the people's "Will;" now they call him "the discarded Bill." "Strange such a difference there should be, 'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee." This is the result, and fortune of politics. In all nations, so far as I have seen, are restless spirits who must be active. If assailed by outside enemies, these restless cusses will unite in the common defense; but overcome outward pressure, and they will turn round and sow division, just for the pure love of the thing. "England is a grand nation; and her laws are administered impartially in harmony with the moral tone of the nation. This gives her strength and durability; but the life-destroying doctrines of Bradlaugh, falsely called the philosophy of life, are slowly but surely, sapping her strength and durability. Class distinction is also a great evil. The hereditary aristocrat fears the tiller of the soil, and does all in his power to perpetuate his poverty; which means weakness to the nation, begetting as it does, jealousy and hate; while the wage earner, true to the law of fallen humanity, returns hate for hate; steals and defrauds whenever he can, and smiles as he thinks of a day of change when he will break the neck of the proud man, and scatter his wealth as the sower scatters the grain in fresh-plowed fields. "The kings of the earth have their eye upon this discontent; and try for self protection, what suavity and promise of reform may do, or else get up a war abroad in order to have peace at home. Yet their jealousy of one another, coupled with internal restlessness compels every European country to keep large standing armies--to maintain their power by a wall of cannon and a circle of steel.